“Good God, you know how to use that thing. Even cuffed you still manage to keep up your bossy attitude.”

His shoulders bounce as he chuckles silently. He’s overpowering in the best way. Not that I’d tell him that.

I reach for Mason’s cuffed wrists around the back of my neck and slip out from under them. I grab the keys and undo them before shifting onto the other side of the bed, wrapping myself up in the bazillion thread count sheets. I shut my eyes, hoping when I reopen them this lightness coursing through me will remain, this moment lasting long enough for me to wash away the uneasiness about the phone call I received earlier. I’ll deal with it. I’ll just do it later when I’m not watching my back for the devil.

CHAPTER TWENTY

Mason

Infatuation stole my sight, blinding me from reality. I no longer saw what was right in front of me.

“Rewind, play it again.” I snap at the IT guy, my tone frustrated. I pace back and forth in the office, rubbing my hand over my jaw as I rack my brain for what other places we walked past that might have footage we could check. We checked the cab tapes, nothing. We’d checked the restaurant, more fucking nothing. We’d searched high and low. We’re hitting a dead end and I’m at the stage where I want Marino to make his move just so we can get this over with. The anticipation, the unknown, it’s clawing at my sanity and irritating as fuck.

“Mase, we’ve searched every goddamn camera in central fucking park. There’s nothing man. Cassidy and Eli went and talked to the shop owners, the cab driver, the waitresses, your doorman. No one saw anything.” Roamyn explains what I already know, but I refuse to believe it. Giuseppe Marino can buy anything in this city, including silence.

“Come on, man, wrap your head around it so we can move forward, because all you’re doing right now is pissing us all the fuck off with your moodiness.”

I look around our office, four desks in the center, coffee machine to the side, my office the length of the back wall. Roamyn sits at his desk while Cassidy leans a hip on the side. And Elias, he’s standing beside me, feet wide apart, arms crossed, frown on his face as he watches the video feed for the tenth time.

“Gotta say, boss, It doesn’t look like we’re going to get anything more from the tapes. Why don’t Eli and I go back to the clinic? We’ll check on Ali and ask around again,” Cassidy interjects, her tone light with hope.

I sigh heavily. “All right. You two do that. I want that place more secure than the Whitehouse because if Marino’s got men about to make their move soon, I guarantee she’s going down first.” I flick a look to Roamyn, my mouth downturned and shoulders pulled low. His face pales and a knot forms in my stomach as I feel his pain. Alison is in danger, just like Lindsey, and it’s completely out of our control.

He scrubs his hands over his face and the tech guy leaves the room with his laptop tucked under his arm. Cassidy and Eli grab their stuff and without another word, they leave the room.

I pull up a chair at Cassidy’s desk and wait for Roamyn to say something. We haven’t spoken much about the shit between him and Ali. It’s built up, and I can see it in his eyes; the attitude, the spark, it’s all gone. Instead, despair stares back at me and the dullness kills a small piece of me because it’s a look I’ve seen before. Not from Roamyn, but from myself in the past.

“I fucked up, Mase.” Roamyn coughs and looks away, trying to keep a lid on everything bothering him.

I give it to him straight. “Yeah, man. You did.”

“She won’t see me. Won’t talk to me.”

His voice is so pained I almost don’t recognize it. My heart and my mind fight over finding the right words. My heart wants to tell him to go get her, don’t let go. While my head reminds me she’s a twenty-two-year-old drug addict with a tendency to relapse, and he’s a cop with a whole world of issues of his own.

“Do you blame her? The shit you pulled, Roam.” I shake my head, dropping my eyes to the floor.

“Yeah, I know. Trust me, no need for a fucking reminder. That shit’s been playing in my head every damn day since it happened.” He gestures to his head with his hand, his eyes widening with anger. It doesn’t feel directed at me but more at himself.

“I don’t get it, man. I’m your best friend, yet shit, you never told me and I never saw it. When did this thing with you and Alison start?”

He blows out a breath and mutters, “Way before it ever should have.”

With my brows furrowed in, head angled to the side, I share my confusion with him.

He shakes his head. “You don’t wanna know.”

“Look you made a mistake. You did wrong. But from what Lindsey tells me, over the past month and a half, you’ve also done a lot of right with her too. If you want her, Roam, like really want her and I don’t just mean to keep your bed warm until you’ve had your fill, then don’t let one mistake be the end of you two, not before you’ve even had a chance to begin.”

He clears his throat breaking eye contact and shifting uncomfortably on his feet. “Never felt this way before. I don’t know how to deal. The situation is just so fucked up. But thanks. ”

I stand and pat him on the arm and, as I’m about to head back to my office, the sound of the precinct phone ringing cuts through the air. Roamyn reaches over to Cassidy’s desk to answer it.

“Tate OCCB,” he all but growls, taking his current mood out on the unsuspecting person on the other end of the line.

His head makes a sharp turn my way. His frown is now deeper than ever and his mouth is drawn into a straight line. “When? Any leads? Yeah, right. Thanks for filling us in, appreciate that.” Roamyn ends the call and puts the phone back down on the desk, his hand rests there for a moment as he gradually turns around to me, a blank look on his face. My body goes rigid and the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end, something’s wrong.

“What is it?”

He shoots me a look, his gaze distant as he speaks. “Adriana Marino just got reported as missing.”

“What the fuck?” The thought freezes me in place. Baccarelli. “Call Cassidy and Elias back. Meeting in thirty.”

***

I sit forward in my chair, my hands clasped together, elbows on my desk while Cassidy, Roamyn, and Elias fill my office with their opinions and ideas. An ache builds behind my eyes from listening to them, from thinking this shit was over, and for the fact I’d had hardly any sleep last night because again the past came alive and I relived the mistakes that would forever haunt me. Lindsey woke me and soothed my soul with her calming words and warm body against mine. She’s tried to hide it but I’ve noticed the different ways she tries to calm me once it’s over. She hasn’t asked me about them and I haven’t told, but I don’t need to. She heard the words from my mouth, the pain in my voice. She can guess who the star characters are in my nightmares.

Elias loosens his posture and falls back onto the couch. “The princess is missing. Missing persons isn’t our thing so how is this our concern?” He shrugs like it’s no big deal, but he’s not seeing the bigger picture.

“Well, she’s a part of the Marino case ever since she turned herself in, claiming the ICE we found in Alison Jenkins’ locker was hers. She’s connected to Baccarelli, who we know is alive. We don’t know where he is because he’s dropped off the grid. No one’s seen him since we laid eyes on him at the diner where he ran into Lindsey, but that’s not to say he isn’t around,” I answer.

“So I take it Lindsey hasn’t had any more run-ins with him either?” Cassidy asks me, catching my line of sight. The concern in her eyes asks me a whole other question and my insides twist with guilt over what I had her do.